Abstract
This chapter extends well beyond outlining the Multilateral Development Banks' (MDBs) governance systems. It presents the importance and specifics of MDBs' governance, highlighting the main differences among Global, Regional, and Sub-regional institutions. By dissecting multiple layers of complex multilateral governance, the authors reveal a legacy of often outdated written and unwritten practices. They also review the multiple challenges of established governance models, as well as the insufficient efforts to mitigate governance deficiencies through repetitive counterproductive reforms. The conclusion calls for a rigorous assessment and reshaping of MDBs' governance, through forward-looking innovation and new principles, developed further in Chap. 5.
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Notes
- 1.
Called differently in some MDBs: for example Governing Board in CEDB ; Governing Council in IFAD ; Council of the Bank in EDB and IIB ; and Shareholders’ Assembly in CAF .
- 2.
Called differently in some MDBs, e.g. Administrative Council in CEDB ; Executive Board in IFAD , no equivalent in IIB and EDB , where the “Board” is actually an executive (management) Board/committee.
- 3.
The establishing agreement of EIB stipulates that the members of BoG must be ministers, at NIB that the members of BoG must be finance ministers, and at AsDB that BoG members should have a broad experience in economic and financial issues.
- 4.
Called differently at some MDBs, for example as Director General at EADB (East African Development Bank) and BADEA ; Chairman of Executive Board at IIB and EDB , Governor at CEDB , and so on.
- 5.
As IFC and IBRD share the same president, it is the CEO/VP at the IFC who chairs their MC.
- 6.
The Committee’s Secretariat is located at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, Switzerland, but the BIS and the Basel Committee remain two distinct entities. BCBS was established by the central bank governors of the Group of Ten countries in 1974 to provide a forum for regular cooperation on banking supervisory matters.
- 7.
On February 10, 2005, the International Financial Institutions (IFI) Democracy Coalition, a group of civil society organizations committed to improving governance at the IFIs, sent a signed statement to the Governors of the World Bank demanding transparency and accountability in selecting the organization’s president. Over 60 civil society organizations and individuals from developing and developed countries have signed this statement which calls for a process based on “explicit [selection] criteria, including the commitment to a genuine democratization of the institution.” The statement also insists that the process “be open to candidates from all countries”, since the current tradition has it that the World Bank president is an appointee of the US government. The Coalition sees a transparent selection process as a step forward in minimizing the democratic deficit apparent in the Bretton Woods Institutions.
- 8.
As initiated by the Reform Proposals for the Governance Structures of IFIs (Caliari and Schroeder 2002).
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Delikanli, I.U., Dimitrov, T., Agolli, R. (2018). Current Governance. In: Multilateral Development Banks. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91524-1_4
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